The century-old test Rorschach Test, a set of ten “inkblots” originally designed to understand the connection between how people see and what they think, has had a much more illustrious—and even controversial—history. It’s been used as a diagnostic tool for schizophrenia, a general personality test, and a cultural touchstone for any event that can elicit an array of responses. In his book The Inkblots, award-winning author Damion Searls sets out to discover the deeper history behind the images and their maker, including a surprising link between the rise of abstract art and psychiatry.

Preorder your copy of The Inkblots through the CHF box office and save 20%.

A book signing will follow this program.

Presenters:

Damion Searls is the author of The Inkblots: Hermann Rorschach, His Iconic Test, and The Power of Seeing, a history of the Rorschach test and the first-ever biography of its artist/psychiatrist creator. He has also written fiction, poetry, and essays for Harper’s, The Paris Review, and Lapham’s Quarterly, edited the one-volume abridgment of Thoreau’s Journal for NYRB Classics, and translated more than thirty books by authors including Nietzsche, Proust, Rilke, and five Nobel Prize winners.